Horses are known to keep their owners on their toes, and Genevieve Munson’s grand prix jumper Zonderling is no exception to that rule. His Dutch name translates to “eccentric,” and Munson said it fits his personality perfectly. 

“He’s a very sweet horse, but he’s pretty quirky about some things,” she said. “If you handwalk him, he’s walking you. He can be impatient outside of his stall, kind of like a child. Every day at 11 a.m. CST, ‘Joey’ takes a nap, usually laying down. And if I go to mount Joey at the ring, I have to get on him like they get on race horses; someone walks him and I walk beside him, put my foot in the stirrup, bounce twice, and get on. But you know what, if Joey goes and wins the grand prix class, he can do whatever he wants!”

The gelding, at age 20, not only is still winning—most recently the pair topped the 1.45-meter national grand prix on Feb. 17 at Great Southwest Equestrian Center Winter Series 3 in Katy, Texas—he’s doing it after recovering from a shocking and unusual injury sustained in a trailering accident two years ago.

Munson, who grew up on a 50-acre horse farm in northwest Arkansas, first met Joey in 2016 when she had qualified for the children’s jumper Nations Cup team at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Florida) and was looking for a horse to lease for the class. At the time, she passed on the Dutch Warmblood (Escudo I—Or-Animo, Animo), but in 2018, when he hit Munson’s radar again as a sales horse, she changed her mind. 

“At the time, we weren’t in the financial position to buy Joey,” Munson explained. “I had several 1.20-meter horses competing then. But we agreed to take him on as a sales horse. I showed him at a couple shows before we brought him home to our farm in May 2018, and he’s never left.”

The pair have amassed many top accolades. In their first season, they earned team gold in the children’s jumpers at the Gotham North FEI North American Youth Championships (Michigan) and were champion of the low junior jumper division at the inaugural USHJA National Championships in Las Vegas. They have a pair of team silver medals from the Neue Schule/USEF Prix Des States Junior Jumper National Championships (Pennsylvania) in 2019 and 2021 and won the 2021 $50,000 HITS Chicago Grand Prix at Lamplight Spring Spectacular II (Illinois).

While Joey is known for minor mishaps, his greatest ordeal took place heading back to Arkansas after a trip to HITS Ocala (Florida) in March 2022. 

Munson and her father were on the road when they heard a loud banging in their trailer and pulled over to check on the horses. They found that Joey had destroyed the latch on his chest bar and was halfway into a box stall occupied by a pony. When Munson went to put Joey back, the pony began kicking out. 

“For some reason, Joey decided to try to jump out the window [of the escape door],” she said. “He gets his head and front feet through the window, and his chest was pressed down on the escape door window. Somehow, he decided that wasn’t a great idea and then backed himself back into the trailer.” 

Once Munson managed to get Joey back in his stall, she could assess him for any significant injuries. “Luckily he only had a big cut on his chest, so I worked on stopping the bleeding, and then we continued on to Arkansas,” she said.

Two days after they got home, Munson noticed Joey was a bit resistant to walking around in his paddock. Worried he might have a more severe injury from the trailer incident than they originally thought, she took him to Dr. Gary France, DVM, at Pea Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, to get evaluated. 

“At the clinic, our home vet pulled out a chunk of Joey’s sternum,” Munson said. “So he fractured it, but there is zero literature on a horse that’s broken their sternum. No one could say for certain what to expect, or if Joey would ever be ridden again, so we were taking it one day at a time.”

Joey remained at the clinic for a few days so they could monitor him for any signs of infection. When he returned home, Munson tended to Joey’s chest wound, washing it twice a day and administering antibiotics. Time off, outside in his paddock, was necessary for Joey’s sternum to heal, but Munson started to worry about the other effects it was having on her senior athlete.

“Over time, Joey started to look like an 18-year-old horse, which was scary for me because he never looks his age,” she recalled.

At the end of April, Munson’s equine chiropractor noticed that the scar tissue around his Joey’s sternum was becoming very tight and suggested he might benefit from occasional rides. “In doing that, the scar tissue and the muscles around it would heal correctly and wouldn’t be short or tight and restrict his movement,” Munson said. 

At the beginning of July, Munson traveled to France to work for trainer Katie Prudent. While she was away, her sister Michaela and her dressage trainer, Aaron Wilson, shared the responsibilities of flatting Joey each week. 

By December 2022, Genevieve was unsure of what was next Joey. He was fit again and seemed more comfortable, but no one knew what to recommend he should or shouldn’t do. 

“I didn’t know what his next goal should be,” she said. “Would he be able to jump the 1.10-meters again, would he be able to jump higher than that? Or would he just be sound enough to get turned out? But something told me Joey wasn’t ready to retire—he loves to get on the trailer and go to shows. If he’s not on the trailer, he whinnies as it leaves.” 

Genevieve decided to take Joey to World Equestrian Center—Ohio to compete him in a 1.25-meter class to see what she had. “After that class, I felt like he didn’t have as much power as he used to,” she said, “and that concerned me.”

After showing him again at WEC—Ohio the next month with a similar result, Genevieve had another horse show veterinarian evaluate Joey. The vet determined his hocks and back were sore and suggested injecting them. Munson opted not to, as she was getting ready to fly back to France for another nine months and he would be in lighter flat work with Michaela during that period.

It wasn’t until September 2023, when Genevieve was back from her second stint in Europe and settling into a job working for the Cox family at their Valley View Stables in Athens, Texas, that she was able to focus on getting Joey fully evaluated.

“Once we had settled in, Joey still didn’t feel right to me—his right lead canter wasn’t as strong as it’s always been,” Genevieve said. 

Genevieve made an appointment for mid-October to have sports medicine veterinarian Dr. Todd Laughrey, DVM, PC, of Athens Equine, evaluate Joey. 

After a thorough lameness exam with no conclusive diagnosis, Laughrey X-rayed Joey’s hocks. “He turned to me and said, ‘If I hadn’t been the one to do this X-ray, I wouldn’t believe this—this horse looks like he has the hocks of a 3- or 4-year-old,’” Genevieve said. “So that made me feel better that there wasn’t any arthritis or anything like that there. But when Dr. Laughrey went to X-ray Joey’s front pasterns, he found several bone spurs and extra bone growth everywhere.”

Laughrey said Joey had ringbone in his front pasterns. He felt that the front pastern pain was resulting in Joey loading his hocks and back to unweight the front end. He elected to inject the front pasterns twice with alpha-2 macroglobulin, and the sacroiliac joints with anti-inflammatories.

By December 2023, Genevieve took Joey to Great Southwest Equestrian Center to compete in a 1.20-meter jumper class. 

“I hadn’t shown him in almost year at that point, but he went in, and it just felt so easy for him,” Genevieve said. “I think I smiled the whole way around the ring! I knew he still needed to be a little fitter, but he was able to do his job well again.”

Genevieve spent January getting Joey fitter and by early February, the pair were second in a 1.30-meter class and the 1.40-meter grand prix at GSEC.

“I had all the scope and more,” Genevieve said. “Joey had come back; he was competing easily without effort.”

But in mid-February, Joey got off the trailer at Athens Equine with a gash on his right hock—presumably from being kicked by another horse, an injury that required oral antibiotics. On the morning of the Welcome Stake at GSEC Winter 3, Joey got himself into yet another predicament.

“He roots the reins and tries to itch on the stall door and gets his bit caught on the latch of the sliding door,” Genevieve said. “He pulls back, half of the bridle breaks. And then he pulls the stall door halfway down the aisle before the rest of the bridle breaks. I’m horrified—someone at the end of the aisle caught him. Luckily, Joey dragged the door next to him, not on top of him. I called the stable manager to have his guys come fix the door, and Joey is completely unaffected—he’s standing in another stall eating hay.”

Three hours later, Joey went on to win the Welcome. On Saturday, Joey continued his winning ways in the grand prix, capping a roller coaster of a week for his whole team. 

“It is never a dull moment with Joey,” Munson said of her partner of almost six years. “The other day, one of the girls in the barn said to me, ‘He’s got to handle all the bad luck outside of the ring so you have good luck in the ring!’ ”

The only physical reminder of Joey’s trailer injury is a scarred hole in his sternum between his front legs. The only way to find it is by running a hand over the area. Although it took two years for Joey to make a full recovery, Genevieve admits that she was nervous about his prognosis for the future. 

“I was worried about what would happen with his sternum when he landed off the jumps,” she said. “Luckily it has never been an issue for him but during the recovery process; I was worried about it. There was definitely a period of time where I didn’t think he would come back. 

“Having Joey back is the coolest feeling,” she added. “I don’t think about the rails with this horse; I know if I don’t get in his way, he’s going to jump clear. Joey thrives in a show ring—that’s where he’s his best.”

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Do you know a horse or rider who returned to the competition ring after what should have been a life-threatening or career-ending injury or illness? Email Kimberly at kloushin@coth.com with their story.